Just ten games remain for the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2016-17 season. The playoffs are a distant hope but could become slightly more reasonable (which is not to say actually reasonable) with a victory tonight over the Denver Nuggets.
More pressing is the need to catch not only the Nuggets but pass the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers along the way. Portland plays their second-to-last back-to-back tonight as well, against the Los Angeles Lakers. Since the All-Star break, the Lakers are 2-12 under the reign of Magic Johnson.